Clashes over anti-Islam film in Indian Kashmir

Kashmiri Muslim protesters burn an effigy representing the United States as they shout slogans during a protest in Srinagar, India, on Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012. The protest was held against an anti-Islam film called “Innocence of Muslims” that ridicules Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. AP PHOTO/MUKHTAR KHAN

SRINAGAR, India—Hundreds of Muslim protesters in Indian Kashmir clashed with security forces and burned a police vehicle on Tuesday during angry demonstrations over an anti-Islam film made in the United States.

All shops and businesses were shut in the restive Muslim-majority Himalayan region by a strike called to protest against the film, which was produced in the US by an extremist Christian and convicted fraudster from Egypt.

Clashes erupted in central Srinagar, the biggest city of Indian Kashmir, when a group of about 300 protesters attempted to march to the local United Nations building but were stopped by police.

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They threw stones and torched a police van while security forces fired volleys of tear gas to keep them back, an AFP photographer said.

In other protests dotted around the city, crowds of young men shouted anti-US slogans and burned American and Israeli flags as well as effigies of US President Barack Obama.

Kashmir was roiled by protests last Friday, a traditional day of demonstration in the region, and police in the southern Indian city of Chennai detained 86 protesters who attacked the US consulate.

India, home to about 150 million Muslims, has condemned the film as “offensive.”